The Bar Towel

I've had plenty of experience bringing beer back into Ontario, but i'm wondering what the experience is crossing in Quebec? Specifically, if I bring back an amount in excess of the permissable/duty free amount, what is the tax/duty like? Is it comparable to Ontario?

From what I have heard, you are only allowed to bring back one case when crossing in to Quebec, regardless of your willingness to pay duty. I am not sure if that changes depending on if you have a personal exemption or not (ie: they let you pay duty on one case). One of the Quebec guys can probably provide more insight on this but from what I have heard, a lot of people from Quebec will go out of their way to cross through Ontario when returning from Vermont.

Thanks...anyone else feel free to provide more info! The SAQ site seems to indicate that after 48 hours you're entitled to the standard case of 24 (duty free), plus an additional 9 litres (subject to duty, tax, etc). How much that duty/tax etc would be is another story altogether i'm guessing!

Don't know the actual rules but when I crossed at St. Armand/Philipsburg a few weeks ago I declared a case and didn't pay any duty.

Very hit or miss. I brought back 24 bottles of mixed size after 1 night in vermont and paid duty after i talked the quebec border guard out of seizing some of my bottles because they were not all the standard bottle size. This was at Derby Line crossing. Its more worth it to drive to cornwall, cross there, and then double back into quebec.

The border guard did quite the job of emptying my car while they were searching for smokes as well.

Thread here:
http://www.ratebeer.com/forums/vt-quebe ... 229686.htm

Thanks....sounds to be hit & miss. The amount we're likely to bring back may be within the limit, otherwise the +9 litres subject to duty, etc. showing on the SAQ site might be adequate....but maybe the extra 2 hour driving is worth avoiding the hassle!

I stopped by there with a single 24 in May. Got raped with 45$ of duty. Never again. Cornwall is a stone throw's away and worth the extra rolling on Highway 2.

Passed through the crossing that feeds up from Burlington on the 89 a few weeks ago. We were barely in the US for 24 hours. We had about 40 Heady Topper and a few other things between three guys. The border guard seemed totally unprepared for us declaring any beer at all. She sent us in to pay, and inside it was a bit chaotic at first trying to figure out what to pay, but in the end we ended up paying about $$15-$20 on close to $200 worth of beer. They were confused, but there was no danger of anything being confiscated.

I didn't find it any more or less bad than any other crossing I've ever done.

While we were waiting for them to figure out the amounts an the procedures one of the guards was trying to explain to us the rules for if you go over. I couldn't understand anything he was trying to say (not because he spoke French). It was all very confusing, but it sounded to me like Québec allowed you to basically double the personal exemption, but that was it.

EDIT: meant to say we were barely there 24 hours.

iguenard wrote:I stopped by there with a single 24 in May. Got raped with 45$ of duty. Never again. Cornwall is a stone throw's away and worth the extra rolling on Highway 2.

Which crossing?

We have yet to have a problem at the Richford VT crossing, it's only open from 8 till 4 and in the middle of a farmers field. What we do is itemize every beer and their cost on a sheet of paper and hand it over, risky business I know, but we go in fully expecting to pay duty. Claude and Phil really appreciate it, just hand over the list and declare what you have, easy peasy. Well over 200 heady toppers and pretty much a grand in other beers have made it through the crossing with zero hassle. Rousse's point on the other hand, those guys had no idea what to do, hauled in and confusion started. Had 4 cases of heady plus a metric shit ton of random bombers. Heady topper only says one pint on the can, no ounces, how to tax a pint was about to explode the brains of two border employees. We were polite and said "let me go to the car and bring in every thing we have as I am pretty sure one of the bottles has the pint conversion on it". Brought in bombers of quel que chose that had 1 pint 6ozs on the side. Jean and Danielle were convincted that 1 pint = 6 ozs. We were taxed a total of 30 some dollars, told to get a import license and basically never to show up again, still begrudge the place on the way into Vermont, from NY crossing at ogdenburg.
Quick edit here, heading to vermont this weekend, will let you know if we get taxed or not.

Keep me posted. Hopefully you're on your way back before I am to suss out the current 'climate'! Depending on how much we pick up the exemption might apply anyway.

sprague11 wrote:

iguenard wrote:I stopped by there with a single 24 in May. Got raped with 45$ of duty. Never again. Cornwall is a stone throw's away and worth the extra rolling on Highway 2.

Which crossing?

The one up from Burlington on the highway. Ruined my 5-dutyfreestop streak.

Well got pulled in this time for the first time in almost 2 years at the Richford VT. crossing. Had 106 beers costing about 300 bucks. Made a detailed list of every beer we had and the total price. He let the 3 and a half cases of Heady Topper go but charged us duty on the rest, $20.55 and we were on our way. Will still continue to cross here.

How many people with you? Is that the crossing straight up highway 89?

We're leaving tomorrow....picking up some HT and will be on our way, although we probably won't have near as much beer as you...will report back!